Design Wall something new!

Something New and it looks like it might be a little out of my predictable color palette.  I was looking at the stack of black and white fabric and don't remember why I bought them because I'm just not into  black and white and I especially don't care for gray. So I thought start using them since I look at some of the other stacks of fabrics and know I will use them in the perfect pattern someday I just haven't figured it out and I would hate to run short when I do have the plan in mind.  No plans for the black and white and white and black just use it. My first thought was to use the full spectrum of pastels but as I was cutting the pinks from a pile of leftovers I quickly saw that I had more than enough for 21 blocks. Black and white and pink it is!  I can always make another with blue or yellow or lavander or green.  Always having fun playing with blocks.  --Ann-- linking to Em's Scrapbag

Bull's Eye Border

 Its been another busy week with just ordinary life stuff and if I don't sit down and write 3 or 4 blogposts and schedule them I don't seem to get them done.
Rather than sew another round of blocks I added a border.  Now I have a nice stack to baste I just need a block of time to do it........maybe after I bake a cake for church, deliver it, pull weeds at McCrory Gardens again............such is life--Ann--

Bulls Eye

 I'm still scrap happy here working with a variation of the log cabin quilt and the Bull's Eye.  I cut the center square at 3 1/2 inches and the strips were cut at 2 inches so the finished block is 12 inches.  It will be 36 by 48 so I will add a plaid border to make it a little bigger for a little boy quilt.  --Ann--
Linking to Em's Scrapbag.

Friday Knitting

It doesn't seem like there has been much progress on the knitting front but it has been hot here.  Wool yarn in sweaty hands just doesn't work very well. Thought you might like to see how the footie is knit, there is a yarn over on each row while knitting the sole so all the stitches for the ribbing are all on the cable. No picking up stitches after the heel is turned.  It really is easy the pattern is free on ravelry click.  --Ann--

Summer Reading

1. The Agony and the Ecstacy by Irving Stone autobiographical novel about Michelangelo I read this book in college and re read it because this fall daughter and I are going to Italy.  I found it fascinating reading about how he researched his subjects before beginning and all the prep work that went into each piece.  I believe there was divine intervention guiding his hand as he carved and painted.
2. Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives  by Tom Harford non fiction
3. Oil and Marble by Stephanie Storey fiction about Leonardo DaVinci and Michelangelo
4. Whisper My Secret A Memoir by JB Rowley a daughter's search to learn more about her mother's early life in Australia.
5. Mother of Ten by JB Rowley a continuation of the story 
6. Everything we Keep by Kerry Lonsdale a love story and about letting go.
7. Safe at the Edge of the World by Jean Grainger the sequel to The Tour.
8. Sugar, Salt, Fat by Michael Moss non fiction about the food industry and what they have done to food and how they get us to buy it.  I don't have to buy it and I don't have to eat it!
9. My Funny Valentine by Debbie Macomber  romantic fluff just for fun
10. My Hero by  Debbie  Macomber 
11. The Letter by Kathryn Hughes  a young woman's quest to deliver a letter that she found in a coat pocket in a thrift store.  The letter was written the day the British Empire entered WW2.
12. So Much Owed by Jean Grainger WW2 story that takes place in Ireland.  I think this is her best book so far!

I got a message on my kindle the other day that congratulated me on reading 7 books.  Huh!  I think it should have congratulated me on purchasing 7 books.  It doesn't keep track of all the k books I get from the library.  My reading lists are at 34 so far this year.  Can I do 52? that would be a book a week.  I ordered a paperwhite the other day because they were on sale.  Hubby thought it was a screen cover to go over my kindle.  No its a new device with a non glare screen so I can read outside in the sunlight or in the shade and it is so light weight.  I even got a pop socket to hold it.  Its the handiest little gadget to stick on your phone or e reader especially if your hands have a tendency to cramp like mine do.  I can read one device until the battery goes dead then I can pick up the other while the battery recharges.  Its so nice to have a back up. I heard the cicadas sing when I went for a walk the other evening that means summer is half gone.  Happy reading --Ann--

Log Cabin Fish

Another boyish quilt and this time with No 9 patches!  I cut 5 inch squares for the center from a fish fabric and sewed strips from my bags of leftovers.  No rhyme or reason for placing the strips just what fit then I squared up the blocks to 15 1/2 inches and sewed them together.  Pretty simple.  One of these days I'm going to have to choose some fabric from the stacks instead of the bags of leftovers, I keep hoping I'll get a great idea but in the meantime its leftovers.  --Ann--

Another 9 Patch

 Its always a struggle to pick fabrics and a pattern for the next quilt so in the decision making progress I pulled out some bags of scraps and leftovers and thought I don't have any boyish baby quilts in any of my stacks.  Low and behold here is a stack of 50 9 patches!  Not only 9 patches but also half square triangles were in the bag.  A quilt kit in a bag! Just for me!  The top pic shows how many pieces were in my kit.  I needed to sew a few more. Then to do some arranging,  I like to line things up, is it an obsessive compulsive thing or just me imagining a little boy with his toy trucks or horses following my lines, roads to him, around the quilt.

 This is the original quilt with 9 patches and half square triangles and how completely different the same components can look.  Back to the sewing room to decide on the next quilt  --Ann--

Sailboats

Recent finish on the top quilt.  These quilts really do have nice square corners but no matter what I do or how  I stand I cannot stand square in front of them to take a picture, always some distortion.  These are all the same Buggy Barn pattern from the book Those Crazy Kids. The bottom quilt was made just like the pattern.  The others I used the full fat quarter and for a quick and colorful baby quilt its perfect.  --Ann--

By the numbers

On a cold and snowy day back in January I started sewing 9 patches 394 to be exact.  I cut 1 3/4 inch wide strips from 44 different fabrics for the 9 ps.
Quilt # 1) I was choosy and used 105 9 ps, the blues didn't make the cut.  I used the same light fabrics for the alternating squares and the sashing.  
Quilt  # 2) I used 100 9 ps and most of the blue 9 ps plus introduced 5 or 6 new dark fabrics.
Quilt # 3) I used 52 9 ps,  the background fabrics were leftover from quilt #1, the stars were made from the darks of quilt # 2 then I added the dark red and black but ran out of each so had to find something suitable from the stash.
Quilt # 4) 130 9 ps and leftovers from previous 3 quilts and a couple more odd bits because they worked and were needed.
There are probably 60 different fabrics in these 4 quilts.  I wish I had kept track of the yardage used but looking at my stash I didn't make much of a dent.   Only 7 nine patches left!  And a short stack of 1 3/4 inch strips.  I might use them in a log cabin quilt but for now they are going back in the closet.  They need to make new friends for the next quilt.  Happily working from my stash --Ann--

9 Patches

Another 9 patch quilt from this stack of leftover 9 patches.  First put all the 9 patches on the design wall then look at the fabrics leftover from the other quilts,  alternating squares, a whole bunch just the right size and even some sashing pieces and a pile of dark squares from 9 patch #2.  Think think think how can I use those? Think think think.  Try rec stars!!! just a few.

All the parts are there now to do some rearranging.  The brown 9 patches are in the center of the double 9 patches.

I paired the 9 patches so there are matching blocks in opposite corners, that way I could make diagonal lines. There are pink 9 ps, red 9 ps, plaid 9 ps, blue 9 ps,  and yellow 9 ps.

Pick a color and follow the 9 patches across and around the quilt.  When I looked at the small photos with my reading glasses and I wasn't sitting the proper distance from the computer screen the triangles rec stars were somewhat blurry and blooming stars popped into my head.  I think that is what I will call this quilt is Blooming Stars or Blooming 9 Patches.  --Ann--

Happy 4th of July

God Bless America

Sailboats

 I love sewing these Buggy Barn Sailboats they are so quick and so fun to pick the fabrics and always a surprise to see how the fabrics pair up when you shuffle the stack.  The only thing left is the binding and the label but I will wait with the label until the baby has been born and that is a few weeks away. Sailboats in the summer and another quilt entirely from my stash  --Ann--